Trash talk precedes Hill, press game

Competition is heating up between members of Congress and the “Bad News Babes” ahead of Wednesday’s Congressional Women’s Softball Game, with both teams taking to Twitter to boast about their athletic prowess.

This is the fifth annual game, which pits congresswomen against the D.C. Press Corps in an effort to raise money for the Young Survival Coalition, an organization that supports young women diagnosed with breast cancer. This year promises to be the Congressional Women’s Softball Game’s most successful fundraising effort yet: the organizing committee expects to bring in close to $125,000, or twice what the game raised last year, according to committee co-chairwoman and Democratic National Committee staffer Kate Houghton.

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Players are thrilled about this achievement, but their common success is not taking away from heated trash talking and competitiveness on Twitter leading up to the game.

The boasting dates back to December, before practice even got underway. And the commentary has only increased as the game has gotten closer, with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a co-captain for the Congressional team and one of the Game’s founders, leading the charge.

A win for the Congressional team looks unlikely based on past performance — they have won only one game — but the team’s captains are optimistic about their chances this year.

“The Congressional team is determined to win the game and avenge last year’s defeat too,” co-captain Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

“The women members are primed and fully expecting the hearty contest that this always is,” Wasserman Schultz added.

However, Press team co-captain Amy Walter of the Cook Report assured the congresswomen that the “Bad News Babes” would be ready to play. “We have put together a hearty band of Capitol Hill reporters,” Walter said.

Yet Walter did acknowledge that the “Babes” team is not at full strength since some its players have been called to report on President Obama’s trip to Africa, among other news items.

Aside from competitive sportsmanship, players stressed the symbolic nature of the game, characterizing it as an example of what Washington should be but rarely is.

“This event is a symbol of the Washington we are all striving for - Democrats and Republicans working together across party lines to help others and achieve a common goal of raising money for breast cancer survivors,” Gillibrand said.

“There is so much divisiveness and vitriol and even, not just between Republicans and Democrats but even the normal tension that exists between the press and the elected that they cover, and this game is one way to come together around a common purpose, and that purpose is fighting breast cancer,” Wasserman Schultz said.

The Congressional Women’s Softball Game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday at the Watkins Recreation Center, in Southeast Washington.